A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 eBook

While we lay in Long Reach, thus employed, the Earl
of Sandwich, Sir Hugh Palliser, and others of the
Board of Admiralty, as the last mark of the very great
attention they had all along shewn to this equipment,
paid us a visit on the 8th of June, to examine whether
every thing had been completed conformably to their
intentions and orders, and to the satisfaction of
all who were to embark in the voyage. They, and
several other noblemen and gentlemen their friends,
honoured me with their company at dinner on that day;
and, on their coming on board, and also on their going
ashore, we saluted them with seventeen guns, and three
cheers.

With the benevolent view of conveying some permanent
benefit to the inhabitants of Otaheite, and of the
other islands in the Pacific Ocean, whom we might
happen to visit, his majesty having commanded some
useful animals to be carried out, we took on board,
on the 10th, a bull, two cows with their calves, and
some sheep, with hay and corn for their subsistence;
intending to add to these other useful animals, when
I should arrive at the Cape of Good Hope.

I was also, from the same laudable motives, furnished
with a sufficient quantity of such of our European
garden-seeds, as could not fail to be a valuable present
to our newly discovered islands, by adding fresh supplies
of food to their own vegetable productions.

Many other articles, calculated to improve the condition
of our friends in the other hemisphere in various
ways, were, at the same time, delivered to us by order
of the Board of Admiralty. And both ships were
provided with a proper assortment of iron tools and
trinkets, as the means of enabling us to traffic,
and to cultivate a friendly intercourse with the inhabitants
of such new countries as we might be fortunate enough
to meet with.

The same humane attention was extended to our own
wants. Some additional clothing, adapted to a
cold climate, was ordered for our crews; and nothing
was denied to us that could be supposed in the least
conducive to health, or even to convenience.

Nor did the extraordinary care of those at the head
of the naval department stop here. They were
equally solicitous to afford us every assistance towards
rendering our voyage of public utility. Accordingly,
we received on board, next day, several astronomical
and nautical instruments, which the Board of Longitude
entrusted to me, and to Mr King, my second lieutenant;
we having engaged to that board to make all the necessary
observations, during the voyage, for the improvement
of astronomy and navigation; and, by our joint labours,
to supply the place of a professed observator.
Such a person had been originally intended to be sent
out in my ship.

The board, likewise, put into our possession the same
watch, or time-keeper, which I had carried out in
my last voyage, and had performed its part so well.
It was a copy of Mr Harrison’s, constructed
by Mr Kendall. This day, at noon, it was found
to be too slow for mean time at Greenwich, by 3’
31” 89; and by its rate of going, it lost, on
mean time, 1”, 209 per day.